


vampires.

by pyroallerdyce



Series: (not at all spooky) skywalkers series [october writing challenge 2020] [19]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - 1980s, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, One Shot Collection, Prompt Fic, Short One Shot, Tumblr Prompt, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, october writing challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27100687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyroallerdyce/pseuds/pyroallerdyce
Summary: Mara rolled her eyes.  “One of these days, you’re going to put some effort into these Halloween parties that your parents throw.”“I am putting some effort into this.”“Luke.”He just shook his head.  “Am I dressed as a vampire right now or not?”“Wearing a costume is not putting in the effort.  It’s a requirement from your father."or: Luke and Mara are preparing for the Skywalker Halloween party, but some serious stuff comes up during their conversation.(these will really make little sense unless you read the whole series.)
Relationships: Mara Jade/Luke Skywalker
Series: (not at all spooky) skywalkers series [october writing challenge 2020] [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947904
Kudos: 11
Collections: October Writing Challenge - 2020





	vampires.

**Author's Note:**

> attempt at breaking my writer's block day 19. I am so frustrated right now. you have no idea.
> 
> i really hope you're not reading this on its own without reading the rest of the series because I can't understand this making any sense without the rest of the context.
> 
> so apparently my luke/mara fics are all going to have an air of sadness about them at certain points, at the very least, but I don't think I'll be writing one as sad as the last one again. 
> 
> and as always, if you like what you read and you want to see more, please let me know via a comment or kudos or bookmark so that tI know I'm not writing into a void. enjoy!
> 
> october 19: “Am I dressed as a vampire right now or not?.”

**1989**

“I want to suck your blood,” came a voice from behind Luke, the fake accent sometimes attributed to vampires causing him to bite back a laugh.

“I’d rather you sucked something else,” Luke said, feeling a hard slap to his shoulder. “What? I’m just being honest.”

“Can you please get your mind out of the gutter and into the spirit?” Mara groaned, stepping to Luke’s side. “Do you not understand how much I’m looking forward to this?”

“I know that you’re excited,” Luke said. “I do not know why.”

Mara rolled her eyes. “One of these days, you’re going to put some effort into these Halloween parties that your parents throw.”

“I am putting some effort into this.”

“Luke.”

He just shook his head. “Am I dressed as a vampire right now or not?”

“Wearing a costume is not putting in the effort. It’s a requirement from your father,” Mara pointed out as Luke reached for the gel. “Slicked straight back, just like Bela Lugosi.”

“I know,” Luke said, pouring some into his hand and running his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know why I have to do this. I’m going to wear a hat.”

“In case you take the hat off, of course,” Mara said, reaching for the hairspray. “Excuse me for a moment.”

Luke glanced over at her as she stepped back and bent down, spraying her hair. “What are you doing?”

Mara stood back up and used her hands to get her hair into the places that she wanted it to be. “Doing my hair.”

“Upside down?”

“It helps, trust me.”

“Fine,” Luke said, turning back to the mirror and resuming slicking back his hair. After a moment, his gaze shifted across the mirror to where Mara was, and he smiled as he took in her appearance. “You look fabulous, Countess Dracula.”

Mara laughed. “Count and Countess Dracula. Though, I think Bela Lugosi would never wear anything like what you’re wearing. It’s so sexy.”

“What you’re wearing is sexy,” Luke said, turning and letting his eyes drift over her. “I am just here in a shirt, a vest, some pants, and a cape.”

Mara rolled her eyes. “That is a pair of incredibly well-fitting black trousers, a white button-down shirt with a black lace vest and maroon ascot, and a tattered black cape with a silver neck chain. Oh, and the hat. It is so much more than just pants, a shirt, a vest, and a cape, and you look amazing in it.”

Luke reached up and finished with his hair, walking over to the sink and washing the excess gel off his hands. “You spent entirely too much time putting these costumes together if you can just rattle it off like that.”

Mara rolled her eyes again. “Can you please put some effort into this? Your mother will not be happy if you act like you aren’t enjoying yourself like you did last year.”

“I didn’t enjoy myself last year,” Luke pointed out. “And I’m not an actor like Han and Leia.”

Mara leaned up against the counter and watched him for a moment. “Why didn’t you enjoy last year?” she asked. “Because I suddenly don’t believe that you just felt sick like you told me back then.”

Luke reached for the hand towel and carefully dried his hands, thinking of how to phrase things without upsetting her. “Something just hit me last year, that’s all. And it’s not something that I knew that I still wanted. It ruined my night, to be perfectly honest, because it’s something that I can’t have.”

Mara stared at him until what he meant hit her, and she went and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. “You think I don’t wish we were doing family costumes like Han and Leia get to do with Ben? Because I do. I wish we could do that so much.”

“I know that you weren’t ready before, but maybe it’s time that we talk about adoption,” Luke murmured.

“No,” Mara said, shaking her head.

“Mara,” Luke started, but she just turned and walked out of the bathroom.

Sighing, Luke followed her out into the kitchen. “No matter how much we wish it was the other way, it’s not going to be, Mara.”

“Then it doesn’t need to happen,” Mara said, turning to open the refrigerator.

“Mara.”

“I can’t,” she said softly. “I know that it’s an option, but I just can’t, Luke. I don’t know that I would ever be able to hold a baby that we adopt without thinking about how they’re another woman’s child, a woman who can do what I can’t. And I don’t know that I would ever be able to look at that child without thinking that. So, I can’t do that. I cannot do that to a child who needs a mother who loves them.”

Luke stood there while Mara bent to look in the refrigerator, and he went to speak as she stood up. “Don’t,” she said. “Maybe someday we can have a conversation about this, but I would like to push this out of my mind and enjoy tonight.”

Mara turned around and Luke got a good look at her pleading eyes, and he nodded. “Then we won’t talk about it right now.”

“Thank you,” Mara breathed out, setting a container down on the counter. “We’ll let the chill come off of this for a few moments and then after we put it on, we’ll be ready to go.”

Luke eyed the container warily. “What is that?”

“Fake blood,” Mara said before her eyes widened. “Our fangs!”

She walked back into the bathroom while Luke went into the kitchen, opening the container and getting a good look at what was inside. “Why do we need fake blood?”

“We have to be convincing, so we need to look like we’ve bitten people,” Mara said as she walked back into the room. “So I made fake blood.”

“And how did you know how to make fake blood?” Luke asked. 

“When I told Leia we were going as vampires, she immediately told me to make our own fake blood instead of buying some at the store. She asked a costume director about how to make some a long time ago when she and Han went as vampires, and so she told me how to do it.”

“So what exactly is in this?” Luke asked, motioning to the container. “It looks disgusting.”

“Corn syrup, food coloring, and liquid soap,” Mara said, setting their fangs down on the counter next to the container and opening it.

“Soap?”

“The soap makes it easier for it to come off later.”

“Really?” Luke asked skeptically. “I don’t know about this, Mara.”

“Yeah, well, I do. Now come here,” Mara said, reaching for a paintbrush. 

Luke sighed and stepped closer to her as Mara dipped the paintbrush into the fake blood. “Just make sure I don’t have a red stain all over my face for the next week, okay?”

“Stop being so paranoid!” Mara exclaimed. “Do you honestly think that I didn’t try this already?”

“You did?”

“Of course. I put it all over my arm the day I made it, went and painted for three hours, and then washed it off. You couldn’t even tell that I had it on.”

Luke took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll trust in that.”

“Be quiet so I can put this on you.” Luke nodded and Mara reached for his chin, holding him still while she began to paint his face. “Thank you for doing this for me. I know that you really hate dressing up for Halloween.”

Luke waited until Mara let go of him to answer. “It’s not that I hate dressing up for Halloween.”

Mara just gave him a look. “Don’t lie to me.”

“Fine, I hate dressing up for Halloween,” Luke replied. “But that is only because my parents put me through hell with the costumes as a child. I mean, this is an elaborate costume but it’s nothing like the costumes I had to wear as a child.”

Mara laughed. “Padmé was showing me pictures of the last time you dressed up as a vampire once I told her we were. You’re right, it was more elaborate than what you’re wearing right now.”

“That’s my father’s fault for being so obsessed with Halloween and my mother’s fault for caring so much about our appearance,” Luke said, shaking his head. “Sometimes I really hate being a Skywalker.”

Mara smacked at his shoulder. “You love being a Skywalker.”

“I love my family,” Luke corrected. “That does not mean I love everything else that comes with being a member of my family.”

Mara shook her head and reached for his chin to continue painting it. “How much blood do you want?”

“As little as possible,” Luke mumbled.

Mara shook her head again but put the paintbrush to his skin. “You’re going to have to do this for me in a moment.”

Luke stayed silent until Mara was done and when she pushed the paintbrush into his hand, he smiled. “Let me guess, you want a ton of blood.”

Mara grinned. “Smeared all the way across my face.”

Luke laughed and dipped the paintbrush into the fake blood. “As you wish, my Countess.”

They finished getting ready and went to the party. Surrounded by people, some that they knew and others that they didn’t, Luke tried to have a good time. The food was excellent, the champagne was flowing, and the decorations had somehow grown since the year before. It was fun. It was supposed to be fun.

But every time that Luke caught Ben or the other children that were there out of the corner of his eye, he felt sadness flow through him. He’d never be a father, the Skywalker name was going to end with him, and everything was going to fall upon his seven-year-old nephew someday. But most importantly, Mara would never be the mother she craved being. Luke had no idea how to rectify that when she felt the way that she did about adoption. He’d thought that perhaps Mara would be open to it now that it had been five years since the surgery, but after listening to her earlier, he knew that she never would be. 

That thought made him even sadder, so he shoved it to the back of his mind. He was going to enjoy the party. 

Little did he know that Mara was thinking about the same thing every time she saw Ben and his new acquaintances. She’d never get to watch a child of her own run around like that, and it felt like a knife through her heart every time she thought about it. She wished she could give Luke an heir. Someone to carry on the Skywalker name.

But she knew that it was just not meant to be.


End file.
